There is just one woman whose name appears on an official copy of the Declaration of Independence— Mary Katharine Goddard.

Goddard, a 38-year-old publisher and patriot, was printing the Maryland Journal when the Second Continental Congress evacuated Philadelphia in the face of British forces and reconvened in a tavern near her offices in Baltimore from December 1776 to January 1777.

This is notable because signing the Declaration was an act of treason, and its signatories subject to execution for it. Never before had their pledge of their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor been quite so explicit, and Goddard added her full name to it, unmistakeable at the bottom of the page.

Her printing of the Declaration bears 55 names. It is missing only Thomas McKean, who signed the document later in 1777. There are still 11 of the broadsides in existence, most in public institutions and one in a private collection.

The Goddard family had an outsized impact on the communications of colonial and early America, founding newspapers in three colonies and participating in the founding of what would become the U.S. Postal Service.

William and Mary Katharine were both active in the Revolutionary cause. Under Mary Katharine’s and her mother’s operation, the Providence Journal ran many pieces in favor of the colonies and a special issue critical of the Stamp Act in 1765. William created the colonial postal service in partnership with Ben Franklin in 1775, when the Crown-controlled post started thwarting colonial communications in the run-up to revolution.

A longtime entrepreneur, Mary Katharine ran newspapers in three colonies, following her brother’s ambitions and follies as they took him from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Maryland. She often supplemented William’s businesses with bookbinding and other services, keeping them afloat during her brother’s financial troubles and occasional jailings. William had a reputation as a hot-head, which often led to dramatic disputes playing out in the pages of his newspapers. Mary Katharine, on the other hand, “refused to be drawn into the disputes her brother could never avoid,” according to William’s biographer.

In 1776, a member of a local political club showed up at Mary Katharine’s office in Baltimore and “abused her with threats and indecent language on account of a late publication in her paper,” as she described the incident to the Baltimore Committee of Safety. The committee decided in Mary Katharine’s favor and reprimanded the man. William later escalated the dispute with the Whig Club until he was almost literally tarred and feathered and was literally run out of town.

Mary Katharine left the Maryland Journal, but remained postmistress and maintained a bookstore in town. During her time as postmistress, she was known for her punctuality and dedication, often paying out of her pocket to keep the operation running in unsettled times.

But in 1789, as the new country’s government was being established under President Washington, she was abruptly told to vacate her position for a political appointee. The reason given was it would require more travel than a woman could handle.

Mary Katharine publicized her removal in her own paper and over 200 Baltimore businessmen petitioned the postal service to keep her in place, but were ignored. Mary Katharine, ever spirited, wrote to the President and the Senate to protest her removal. Washington responded, but declined intervene in the local matter.

Mary Katharine lived quietly in Baltimore until her death in 1816. She never married, and her short will mentions only one person— a slave named Belinda Starling, to whom she willed her freedom and “all the property of which I may die possessed, all which I do to recompense the faithful performance of duties to me.”

An artist and printer named Mindy Beloff recreated Goddard’s printing in 2009, painstakingly studying the original broadside and matching its paper weight, color, font (Caslon), and original printing techniques.

“Setting the Declaration in type was enlightening in many ways, as my thoughts throughout the process were of Mary Katharine in her print shop during the cold month of January, not having 21st century amenities,” Beloff wrote. “Mary Katharine was an incredibly brave woman for her time. By her actions, she was clearly a pioneer for women’s rights and freedom of the press.”